VERN-O

AND NOW WE MIGHT BE GETTING SOMEWHERE........I usually only shop at Ass Pro when in a pinch......I still think they're a way off base in the price see follow up below Debi, I appreciate the quick responses. I have to say I am very dissapointed. I did some comparative pricing and here is what I found: Orvis Keough $6.95 Wapsi $5.00 Metz $15.50 to $9.00 I can assure you that the Wapsi and Keough brands are comparable in quality if not superior to the Bass Pro offerings. Both Whiting Farms and Metz offer a price similar to that of the $17 range and I can testify that the quality of these is far superior to anything Bass Pro has to offer. I do not want to dwell on this, but your pricing is way out of line and I can not believe I'm being fed a generic statement about Bird Flu being the cause in price increase. I can not help but feel that Bass Pro has squeezed out local competition and is now price gouging it's customers. LeVern LeVern, Thank you for the additional information. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, but sincerely appreciate you taking time to contact us with your comments. We appreciate all feedback as it helps us improve our services for our customers. Please contact us again if you require further assistance. LeVern, Here is an update from our buyer. "I did not work for Bass Pro Shops when we quit ordering the lower priced necks, but I did work for one our major competitors, so although I don’t know for sure, I think I can make an educated guess as to what happened. Regardless of whose name is on the package there are only a couple of sources for quality fly tying feathers, and we get ours from the same places everyone else does. These hen necks were coming from Wapsi and if I remember correctly, in late 2007 or early 2008 they told me they were not going to be able to ship any more. The reason I was given was that they could not get them into the country due to import restrictions put on feathers because of the bird flu. If this is what happened we would have flagged them to not be reordered. Since the bird flu scare seems to have gone away, these necks may be available now and we simply have not placed any orders for them. I am checking with Wapsi on availability for the lower price hen necks. If they are available our retail price is $4.99. These are the same Keough hen necks that Caddis Fly sells for $5 and Orvis sells for $6.95. I know that our customers have many places they can buy fly tying material and if our pricing is not competitive they will shop with someone else. The hen necks we sell for $16.99 are not the same product as what our competitors are selling for $5-7 and we pay substantially more than $5 for them." If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Here is the biggest load of crap.....I've been fed in a while I purchased a few hen necks back in 2008 from Bass Pro (since they squeezed every local fly shop in a 30 mile radius out of business)....they were $5 (ok quality= ok price)........I was using them for some experimental home dyeing. Fast forward to 2010.....I go back to buy another and they want $17 (insert a long chain of curse words). I was sure it was a mistake and went online and discovered the same thing. At this point I'm so annoyed that I barely see straight. I then email a complaint to Bass Pro, and this is the biggest load of crap (IMHO) response: "Thank you for your patience. Several years ago when the Asian Bird flu was all over the media, lowered priced hen necks that came from overseas became very difficult to bring into the country and most tying material suppliers quit selling them all together. In the past we had some hen necks that we retailed for $4.99 but we have been unable to get these since June of 2008. These particular hen necks come from the US and we first started selling them in November of 2008 for $16.99." I am all for buying American.......but I feel like I'm being spoonfed a load of turd

I think the price is right....looks very nice......he should have put some caster wheels on it. For $400 you can't go wrong....plus a trip to Ontario to pick it up might mean a side trip to go fishing

OldHat....I freaking love it.....IMHO this is the best soft hackle I've seen since I can't remember.

WOW...thanks for all the input....Moscow thanks to you as well....I didn't realize Rit had a custom color page!!!!

actually it's a whiting soft hackle/chickabou skin that I'm trying to dye since they don't carry it in blue

I'm looking to dye a white hen saddle to blue damsel or kingfisher blue. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the color right. I've been using Rit (royal blue, yellow, and green)........I'm not even close......I'm getting a blueish grey. Anyone got any advice?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotlan...ast/8561814.stm Half-cock chicken mystery solved By Huw Williams BBC Scotland reporter Researchers say they've solved the mystery of why some chickens hatch out half-male and half-female. About one in every 10,000 chickens is gynandromorphous, to use the technical term. In medieval times, they might have been burned at the stake, as witches' familiars. But now these chickens are shedding important new light on how birds, and perhaps reptiles, develop. It used to be thought that hormones instructed cells to develop in male or female-specific ways. That's what happens in mammals, including humans, and it leads to secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair for men or breasts for women. But scientists at the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh say they have discovered that bird cells don't need to be programmed by hormones. Instead they are inherently male or female, and remain so even if they end up mixed together in the same chicken. It means a half-and-half chicken will have totally different plumage, body shape, and muscle structure on the two halves of its body. It even affects the wattles on the bird's head, and the spurs on its legs. They will be larger on the cockerel half, and smaller on the hen half, of the same bird. Practical uses Dr Michael Clinton of the Roslin Institute led the research, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature. He said the findings were a surprise. Dr Clinton explained: "We looked at these birds initially expecting them not to be half-male and half-female. We thought there'd be a mutation on one side of the body. "But we found that they were half-male and half-female and that's what actually showed us that the system was different in birds and mammals." And researchers tested their theory with delicate and demanding experiments. "If you put female cells into a male body they'll develop into the normal tissues, but they'll behave as female cells," Dr Clinton said. The hope is that these findings might have immediate practical uses for the poultry industry. Dr Clinton said: "If we can understand what the differences between the male and female identities are, then we can imagine making female birds with the same growth characteristics as males. That would increase productivity, and food security." But if there are vestiges of the same mechanism in mammals, inherited from our reptilian evolutionary ancestors, then the research could help to answer long-standing mysteries of human health. Like, for example, why women live longer than men, or why men are more at risk of heart attacks. "But that will require much more investigation," Dr Clinton insisted.

looking good Jaaf....nice work and glad to see you around again.

I've had some experience with them....you have 3 options......spin them in a loop, tie in by the tip, or split the stem here is a link to the same discussion: http://oakorchardflies.proboards.com/index...amp;thread=2293

looking good Rocky...as always

I am slightly biased toward Whiting.....but for good reason, they are truly masters of raising birds for fly tying There is a good image of a cree here and an explanation of a variant http://www.whitingfarms.com/prod_whiting.html http://www.whitingfarms.com/articles/variant.html I would be looking at some of the bugger packs or popper packs for your tying as well

looks sweet.....I too had my 4 and 6 year olds tying the other day....they're fans of the glow flash!!....egyptian goose....that one is new to me

Denis, Nice tie. Do you know any history behind this pattern? I was asked a while ago to see if I could track down a dry fly called a Dark Montrealer.......it was used up in the Prince Edward Island area...

I too am on a tinsel quest......I'm looking for the stuff in this picture, but haven't had any luck.....maybe similar to what you are looking for (only in red) http://www.speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=38781

yes they most certainly will work for still waters and lake castings!!!!!

Anyone know anything about fishing (fly or trolling) for blue fin tuna near Roatan/Honduras?

I really like the BLW (Black laced white) version of Whitings soft hackle chickabou......here is an example: chickabou tail and soft hackle collar all from the same skin

I've got an HMH Spartan and can switch from standard jaws to the tube fly vise in less than a minute. That was a big selling point for me on the HMH.....It's like getting two vises for the price of one (well another $30). I would seriously consider taking a close look at HMH

PatM....good to see you around.......as always IMHO a favorite!!!

Bobafet for sure

nice work tiers....I like #9 alot!!!...Are the beads attached by a piece of knotted mono?

works well for scissors as well......if you drop some hooks on the floor....just run your magnetized scissors over the carpet and the loose hooks should grab on

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=48667 here is a link to a recent discussion on them. I say give it a bit more time, and experiment with the tension. I'm assuming you're having trouble getting use to the missing arm?........I find that if I mis-grab the bobbin, that I can keep tying and correct it with minimal effort. I can say that I pay more attention now when I let the bobbin just hang....good luck with it

beads= www.flymenfishingcompany.com Good to hear from you Tequillatrout!!